[Alizarine]

I still love my K-x. It's the DSLR that seems friendly-looking enough to security guards as my K-5 IIs + DA*50-135 persuades them to shoo me from shooting inside malls.

[Nokturner]

K-x is still king :-) It does everything I want. Day, night, bird, flying birds, astro, macro, you name it. Fast and very accurate autofocus, more than 98 % (fact is, I have never seen autofocus miss, when missed focus - handling error, or targets K-x isn't built to cope with). Only thing is slight missfocus in yellowish tungsten light - yeah, here I have seen autofocus miss notoriously, but K-x is not built to handle this kind of light in phase detect. Contrast focus works well also in tungsten and is a sufficient work around for me.

Small, versatile and reliable. Only superlatives :-) Got two K-x:es, will use them up to the last shuttercount. Hopefully next camera will be a Pentax FF of the same caliber as K-x, but in FF-territory.

Below: K-x timelapsing stars at night in -20 degrees Celsius. DIY infrared remote, chemical heatpads around lens to avoid frost on front lens.

[aurele]

Wooooow ! Impressive and still working should be use for some ads like "Pentax the (extrem) outdoor company"

[ddharriman]

Hi

“K-x owners.... still happy?” Ho yes(!) I am.

I do not own a K-01, so I cannot compare.
But I do remember this is not a new question… just the models involved are different…

A bit before I bought my storm trooper Kx I do remember people asking if they where still happy with their K100D/D Super cameras, and hey, in those times I was saying yes… I even have the K100DS and still find it a marvelous camera to take some photos from time to time.

Now I have my Kx for 3 years and 2 moths already and still love it, does everything I need and feels, as someone said here before, “like an extension of the harm”.

Per example, bought two weeks ago a DA40mm XS… wonderful lens, still… back focus on the Kx (and the K100DS) quite.

Newer camera bodies have the possibility of correcting focus problems lens by lens (up to 20 lenses sometimes).
The Kx just permits it too but the changes affect all the lenses, and one has to “manually” access “debug mode” - does not exist in a menu, so one has to have a special text file in the root of the SD card and activate the “debug mode” pressing the av button and turn on the camera.

So how to make this easy in this “old body”?

I memorize the correction needed for the DA40mm. When I have it on the camera, I activate the “debug mode” and apply the correction… when I’m tired/finished using the lens, I change lenses with the camera powered off (the best to do), and when powering on I activate again “debug mode” and set the lens correction to zero (all my other lenses do not need correction).

Simple… takes a few seconds more, but has become second nature and now I do not even think about it.

Adapt and evolve is the saying!

Best regards,

[john5100]

I'm happy with it. I shoot concerts (big and small) side by side with 5DMKIII's and D700s and I do just fine. They laughed at me at first but now they don't. Might be upgrading to a K5IIs in the future but i will keep this as my back up.

[Dan91]

Even though I have upgraded to a k5 now, I am still extremly happy with the k-x and still use it every now and then. My k-x was my first venture into dslr photography and was a great simple camera to learn on, without being overwelmed by complex menus and button layouts. However in saying that, this camera still packed quite a punch, with many great features that easily made it one of the best entry level dslr availible at the time. If I had to give it a bad wrap, it would be for the lack of auto-focus confirmation in the viewfinder and the lack of the second control dial

[ChopperCharles]

Hrm. The second dial and confirmation are not something I ever missed. The back/front focus issues mentioned and the spotty AF are the only things I've really had a problem with.

Charles.

[audiobomber]

Hrm. The second dial and confirmation are not something I ever missed. The back/front focus issues mentioned and the spotty AF are the only things I've really had a problem with.

Charles.

Dual wheels are a major feature for me. OTOH, I have not had any focus issue with the K-x. I use the K-20D and K-x interchangeably to test AF on my lenses. They're both accurate. The K-5 I owned for a short time showed severe FF in tungsten light. No such issue with the others. I have an O-ME53 magnifier on the K-x, which helped greatly with MF.

Have you checked AF accuracy carefully? Maybe you need a global adjustment.

High ISO performance is highly exaggerated. The K-x has 2/3 of a stop better SNR than the K20D, the K-01 is about 1/3 stop better than the K-x. The K20D is easily my favourite of these for its controls (dual wheels, User and TAv modes, X-synch, buttons instead of menus) and features (battery grip, WR, pentaprism OVF). I also love the colour balance of the K20D, as opposed to the overly cool K-x and K-01.

[ChopperCharles]

Some lenses, like my 50mm f1.7, 55-300, and 18-55 are spot on. My Tamron 28-75 is unusable -- it front and back focuses by different amounts at different focal lengths. The 40mm XS needs MAJOR focus correction (I have to go through the debug menu 3 times to set it correctly) Some lenses shoot a target fine, but in practice I have to take several shots to get my target in focus. These aren't hard targets either, a motorcycle 6-10 feet from the lens. I use center focus always, then recompose if need be. But, I'll aim for the dead center of the motor, or where the motor and tank lines meet, and half the time the fence behind the bike will be in focus, or the grass in front of the bike will be more in focus. So I always take several shots with the Kx.

With the K01 I take one shot, and then move on. Maybe I need to have the Kx serviced, but I do remember it's been like this with a great many lenses. The kit lenses still work fine, and exhibit this less, but they do exhibit it from time to time. My other lenses that don't play so nicely though.

Charles.

[audiobomber]

I can assure you, something is defective, most likely the body, possibly some of your lenses. I had to do a global adjust on the K-x, and I returned several new lenses for misfocus (FA 35, DA 15, DA 18-135, DA*300), but as a result, all of my lenses focus perfectly on all three of my bodies.

[Kmounter]

I'm happy with it. I shoot concerts (big and small) side by side with 5DMKIII's and D700s and I do just fine. They laughed at me at first but now they don't. Might be upgrading to a K5IIs in the future but i will keep this as my back up.

Awesome shot of Rob Halford. Should be a poster.

I'll just chime in to say after 3 years and 7000 shots, my K-x has been a trooper, but I do wish for better low-light performance and more video versatility, that's why I'm courting a K-30.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

I never warmed up to the K-x. It was OK. I liked the sensor. The button layout was good. But the inferior OVF, the lack of AF point confirmation in it, and the ridiculous implementation of LiveView were always reminding me how much nicer the K-7 was. So I just used the K-7 more and I fell back on the K-x for when I used mirror lenses and I needed to bump the ISO. Now I am giving it to a relative, so it should be seeing more use from someone else.

For me, the K-x is the perfect example of how a good sensor is not enough to make a good camera.